"A Life of Passion"

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Dangerous Wonder Series: Matthew 13:44-46

Introduction: Sue Kidd, in her book When the Heart Waits says this about the spiritual journey: “I’m discovering that a spiritual journey is a lot like a poem. You don’t merely recite a poem or analyze it intellectually. You dance it, sing it, cry it, feel it on your skin and in your bones…It lives in the heart and the body as well as the spirit and the head.”

Faith in God isn’t just about head knowledge, it is about heart knowledge as well. Our faith journey needs to be passionate. But what does it mean to live a passionate life? I think this is an important question, because God created us for more than just to go through the motions in our lives. God wants us to draw out of life every ounce of passion and experience that we can. While the Christian life can have many ups and downs, valleys and mountaintops, the overall experience is to be a blessing. Or another way to look at it is “as a roller coaster.” A roller coaster has ups and downs, but what a ride it is!/ This morning I want to talk about how we can live a passionate life by living fully for Jesus.

I. Lost Passion- (Romans 8:10-11, 15; Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)

In Romans 8:10-11, 15 we read: “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead

because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship…” Romans 8 tells us that in Christ we are made alive. But too many Christians do not live like they are alive. They live like they have lost their passion.

a. The job- One area where people have lost their passion is in their

work. This could be work in the workplace, work at home, or the volunteer work that we do. We are told in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. ¹³ That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.”/ While our work has a sense of “toil” to it, God desires for us to find satisfaction in this toil. But the problem is that we have changed our way of thinking; our toil is now designed to get us the money and things we need to provide for our leisure. Work has become a means to an end.

For many it is similar to this sentiment of a minister who was six months away from retiring: (this statement is in response to someone who asked him if he was going to miss the pulpit) “I retire from this church in six months—23 Sundays, to be exact. Have you ever driven across Arizona or Nevada in the middle of the desert? Your car is speeding along on a road that seems to stretch forever in front of you, and, depending on how fast your are going, a telephone pole swishes by you every few seconds. Every Sunday, after my sermon is over I think to myself, another telephone pole.”

How sad it is to see that so many people just try to get through each week. It is toil, but even more, it is drudgery. They are just doing what they have to do, but there is no excitement in their lives; especially when it comes to their work. The passion is not in their work.

This can be seen in the attitude people take towards volunteering is well. You really have 2 kinds of volunteers; those who volunteer because it is a great blessing to them to serve, and those who volunteer because they feel like they have to. More and more people are volunteering because they feel like they have to, or they get talked into it, but there is no real joy in their serving. To them, each time they serve is like another telephone pole going by. One more notch they can count.

b. Relationships- Passion has been lost in our relationships as well.

There is a story of a minister who was talking with an elderly woman after church one Sunday morning. The woman was telling the minister that her husband of 40 years had past away. The minister said to her: “I’m sorry to hear this. You must miss him terribly.” She responded to him: “I wish I did, but I have come to terms with the fact that in 40 years of marriage, I never knew him.” They were together for 40 years, sleeping in the same bed, raising children and grandchildren, and all she could say in the end was “I never knew him.” Forty years of passionless marriage.

Unfortunately, if you look at marriages today, there are too many passionless marriages. This might be because couples rush into marriage, or because they want a companion, or because it is too easy to get a divorce, and so consequently, couples aren’t putting in the hard work of knowing each other and developing passion in the relationships.

But it isn’t just marriages that are suffering. Friendships are suffering as well. We have lost the meaning of friendship. It used to be that when you made a good friend, that person would be part of your life no matter what. But that isn’t the case any more. How many people who you consider friends, have been your friends for very long? We seem to go through friends a lot more frequently than we used to.

c. Where is the passion? When there is no passion, we live our lives

in the smoky fog of sameness. Life loses its distinction and nuances. We no longer feel our feelings. We have become insensitive in many ways. We walk through life in a trancelike state; emotionless, just getting by. We feel that what we are doing doesn’t really matter. We feel that we have no real purpose.

So where has this passion gone? In his book Dangerous Wonder, Mike Yaconelli tells a story of when a friend of his invited him to speak at a Toastmasters Convention. Because Mike had been involved in Toastmasters when he was younger, he accepted. As they were driving up together, Mike asked his friend what areas the people at the convention would be coming from. His friend responded: “They are the postmasters from every city in northern California.” Mike stared hard at his friend for a moment, and then said: “What did you say? Postmasters? I thought you had said Toastmasters.” Then Mike realized that in a few minutes, he would be speaking to a convention of Postmasters! He decided to pull out his talk on the loss of passion. He said that halfway through his talk people were crying throughout the audience. This affirmed for him the truth that many people were living their lives without passion.

II. Recovering Our Passion- (Luke 15:11-32; Mark 14:3-9;

Matthew 13:44-46)

a. The passion of Jesus- So if we have lost our passion, then how do

we recover it? First, we need to recognize the passion that Jesus had. Through seeing Jesus’ example, we can hopefully be motivated in our own passion for life.

One of the famous stories that Jesus told was “The Prodigal Son.” This story is popular because it brings up in us the longing of knowing how God feels about us and receives us. In this story there are 2 sons. The younger son decides that he doesn’t want to wait until his father has died to get his inheritance, and so he demands his inheritance now; this is of course a great insult to his father. But the father gives in, and gives the younger son the inheritance. The son leaves his father’s home and goes off and parties the money away until he is penniless and homeless.

The father has never recovered from the loss of his son; he has been hurt deeply and grieves his son’s actions. But the father also deeply loves and misses his son. The father daily looks out at the road hoping to one day see his son return. One day he does indeed see his son a great distance away. The father is so excited to see his son that despite the hurt, he runs out to his son to welcome him home. He orders his servants to kill the calf, and get a robe and a ring for his son. He shouts out: “My son is back, my son is back, we are having a party!”

In this story we see great passion from the father. In this story Jesus is telling us that God’s love is extravagant and full of passion. God is passionate about you and me. God exists with great passion, and wants you and me to exist with passion and love with passion. Jesus Himself exhibited passion in the way He lived and the ways He loved. We allow ourselves to be so worried about right and wrong, about acceptable and unacceptable, that we stifle the passion within us. We have to learn to get beyond the borders of expectation and limitation, and find the world of passion God so desires for us; the passion God created in us!

Story: There is a story of a 3-year-old boy who heard his dad come home. He wanted to show his love for his father by getting him a treat. As the father walked in the door, he saw his son trying to poor a glass of milk for him. But the milk was too heavy, and he spilled much of it on the floor (although some did go in the glass). Then when he tried to get the cookies, he knocked the jar over, many of the cookies going on the floor. The boy, seeing his father, grabbed a cookie and the glass of milk and ran it over to his dad. The father threw his arms around his son and exclaimed: “Thank you son for this wonderful gift!”

The boy was showing passion for the father, and the father, knowing there would be time to clean up the mess, acknowledged this passion with his own.

b. The gift of gratitude- Jesus’ stories were full of the expression of

passion. Another story Jesus told was that of a woman who barged in on a meal Jesus was having at the home of Simon the Leper. She had not been invited to this party, and so this caused great anger. But what she did next caused even more shock and anger; she poured some expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and then dried his feet with her hair. The guests responded with statements of: “How dare you waste such expensive perfume.” And “You could have sold the perfume for more than a year’s wages and given the money to the poor.”

Jesus, seeing her passion, responded: “Leave her alone! Do you see this woman! I came into your house. You did not give Me any water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give Me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not put oil on My head, but she has poured perfume on My feet!”

This woman’s passion came from her gratitude; she was so thankful for what Jesus had done for her, that she had to show her thanks in an extravagant way. She was not just grateful, she was overflowing with gratitude, so much so that her eyes could not contain her passion. If we understand who God is, and what God has done for us, then it should show itself in passionate living.

When I think of extravagance, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is children’s birthday parties. Isn’t that true? Parents go to great extremes to throw an extravagant party. They get a clown, a jumper, a great amount of food and decorations. Parties for children these days costs a great amount of money. Why do parents do it? They are showing their passionate love for their children.

c. Taking a risk- I think that many people don’t live passionately

because it is risky. When you live with passion, you don’t hold back. That is hard for others to accept. When we are passionate, we can lose friends and family, and we are often misunderstood. So before we live passionately, we ask ourselves the question: Is it worth the risk?

In Matthew 13:44-46 Jesus tells us: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. ⁴⁵ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Jesus talks of this risky kind of living, but what might it look like in real life?

Story: There is a true story of a girl who graduated from high school uncertain of her future. She enrolled in college not knowing what degree she might pursue. Her parents were happy that she was going to college. But after a year and a half she decided to drop out and live in Hawaii. This concerned her parents greatly. She did this because she was searching for God. After Hawaii she decided to go live in Lake Tahoe and snowboard. This concerned her parents even more. But her parents didn’t know anything about her inner journey; her inner turmoil. She kept telling them she was going to return to college the next year. But when the next year came she told them she was going to go to Africa to spend 5 months on the Mercy Ship. Her parents were not only shocked, but concerned with how much it would cost and how she would get the money. However, in 2 months she raised the money and had a five-month adventure in South Africa. She decided to put together a newsletter to share about her trip with those who were supporting her: One excerpt said this…

“It was around midnight and my friend Carolyn and I were sitting on

top of a jungle gym (in Canaan) talking about how quickly our time

in South Africa had gone. The moon was shining through a thin slice

of clouds, and the stars were shining almost as brightly as they do

in my hometown. The wind was blowing some Eucalyptus trees, and

Carolyn and I were bundled up in sweatshirts and dirt covered skirts.

‘I’ve fallen in love,’ I told Carolyn. ‘I’ve fallen in love, and I am never

falling out.’ I will never forget that night, the trees, the wind, the smells.

I had broken out of my eggshell, emerged from my cocoon, and I was

ready to tell the world that I had fallen in love. I had found what I was

looking for, and when I found Him He hadn’t moved. He wasn’t lost.

He just embraced me and said, ‘Thank you, thank you. I have loved

you all along, Jill. All this time, I loved you first.’ What an amazing love!”

In her wild adventures Jill had finally found God.

What would it mean for you to take a risk in your life? What would it mean for us to take a risk in our ministry for God? I think we are taking a risk by seeking to not be comfortable in our setting, but reaching out into our community. I think we are taking a risk when we give ourselves to His Nesting Place, or the WomenShelter of Long Beach, or the Hispanic ministry. In our daily lives it might mean for us to take that step and talk to our friend or neighbor about Jesus. It might mean changing our job or living situation. But when we take a risk for Jesus, when we are serious about living passionately, Jesus will guide us and bless us!

Conclusion: This way of living seems so irresponsible to those who don’t understand it. It is so much easier, so much safer to not be passionate. But Jesus says to us with His words and His life, “Go ahead, live irresponsibly! Forget about what is sensible, responsible and prudent and rediscover the childlike passion of life.” We can only do this when we have fallen in love with God. We can only do this when we are grateful for what God has done for us. We can only do this when we don’t accept life as it is, and understand there is always more that God has for us.

When you like around and see people just going through the motions, what do you think? It is actually depressing to see people living without passion. I believe that if we live with passion, we will do 2 things: first, we will give a great example to others about the kind of life Christians live, and second, we can help energize others around us. Take the ride of your life on the roller coaster of His unconditional love. Live your life with passion this day and every day. Amen.